Memorandum submitted by The British Psychological
Society
THE PROPOSED
SYSTEM
This is now a three cycle system (roughly equivalent
to Bachelors, Masters and Doctorates), based on a credit system
(ECTS) of 60 credits a year where a credit is 25-30 hours of student
work. The cycles would be done in sequence:
| First cycle: |
180-240 credits (There is also a Short cycle at this level of 120 credits).
|
| Second cycle: | Normally 90-120 credits, minimum 60 credits.
|
| Third cycle: | Unspecified, but suggested three to four years.
|
| |
Recording of results would be by distribution, with cut-offs
as follows: A 10%, B 25%, C 30%, D 25%, E 10%, plus two levels
of failure FX and F.
There would also be a "diploma supplement" giving
more information on what the student had done.
COMMENTS
1. There are no substantial, potential, discipline-specific
problems with conforming to these proposals apart from 4 below.
2. The traditional UK system within which psychology
is taught at the HE level would fit reasonably well, albeit right
at the bottom end of the suggested time spans. The Masters degree
followed by PhD pattern is already being imposed by the research
councils, though there is quite widespread resistance to it.
3. How easily HEIs would find changing to the ECTS system
would depend on which of the varied credit systems (if any) they
were currently using but, given several years' notice, it would
be possible to manage the change.
4. The one potential incompatibility is the taught doctorate
which is now the standard training route for clinical and educational
psychologists. This fulfils most of the outcomes specified for
the second and third cycles, but would not achieve sufficient
credits for completion of the third cycle.
5. Foundation degrees would be "Short cycle".
However, there are few of these in psychology and none which are
accredited by the Society. The recent decision to allow these
to be validated by FE institutions may in any case take them outside
the Bologna Process.
6. The abandonment of the UK classification system in
favour of a GPA-like system, together with the addition of something
like a diploma supplement, would be in line with general thinking
in the UK HE sector. However, the replacement proposed by Bologna
is rather different from the current HEFCE suggestions because
it seems to abandon the idea of uniform standards across all HE
institutions in favour of percentiles.
December 2006
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